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X Press 2- The New Pop Idols

Author: Jonty Adderley
Friday, April 12, 2002
Superstar DJs they may be, but Rocky, Diesel and Ashley Beedle

"As far as I'm concerned I'm just someone who likes music and is a DJ. It's just me and my mates making records." Despite the fact that Rocky's mates happen to be Ashley Beedle and Diesel, all three of whom are well established superstar DJs, X Press 2's level of fame is about to jump exponentially, courtesy of their fantastic new single Lazy.

Featuring the voice of legendary Talking Heads mainman David Byrne the track is set to go to at least number 2 in this week's UK pop charts, achieving that rare and most prized possession of producers; crossover success without compromise. And with their equally impressive dirty acid house album Muzikizum set to repeat the trick in a month's time, their ticket to Fatboy Slim style, superstar success appears unrefundable. Not that they'd agree.

"As Rocky says, you're just an ordinary bloke stepping out of his house to go shopping, who happens to play records," says Ashley Beedle.

"I suppose it comes with the territory but at the same time. . .Christ knows what's going to happen after Lazy."

All three were chatting with Skrufff's Jonty Adderley in a Kensington Hilton suite overlooking Hyde Park on the day the Queen Mother was buried.

Skrufff: Dance music's always been single dominated, and you've previously only released singles how did you approach making this album album-

X Press 2 (Rocky): "Every single track was worked on as a potential single, there wasn't any concept at all. It was purely about making a bunch of singles that hopefully stick together."

Skrufff: You've never made an album before, why start now-

X Press 2 (Ashley): Because our manager told us to."

X Press 2 (Rocky): "We wouldn't have done without external influences because we were happy to carry on releasing singles at club level, really our manager came up with the idea and pushed for an album deal. We signed to Skint and thought 'Right we'd better get started'."

Skrufff: most dance music still seems to be made by either individuals or duos, what's your approach being a trio-

X Press 2 (Rocky): "That's the thing about us, there's loads of duos in dance music but having that extra person is what gives us the edge that makes us how we are. If anyone of us wasn't involved, we couldn't do it."

X Press 2 (Diesel): "Each individual in their separate projects never sounds like X Press 2, you need the other two."

Skrufff: Are you having lots of creative disputes in the studio-

X Press 2 (Ashley): "There's a few embarrassed silences (chuckling)."

X Press 2 (Diesel): "We'll argue over things but I think it's important to be passionate and that's what you have to do, to get to where you want to be. If you didn't do that you wouldn't achieve anything. We don't necessarily get on (stay friends) all the time but we seem to come through it and make the music we make."

Skrufff: You're sounding very much like a band, is that how you feel-

X Press 2 (Ashley): "We're actually really trying to fight against that perception."

X Press 2 (Diesel): "We do sometimes find ourselves saying to our manager, 'Look, we're not a band' because we're not. He might be saying, 'Well, Leftfield did this or did that' but I think if you sat Leftfield down they would have said they were more of a collective. We're DJs first and foremost then as a collective, the X Press 2 studio version appears."

Skrufff: David Byrne's a huge, towering figure of music, how did you set about directing him-

X Press 2 (Rocky): "It was so undirected, we literally sent him some music with no brief or direction at all. There were a few subliminal guidelines in there, like little vocal hooks and he ignored them- thank God. But that's the appeal of getting David Bynre involved, to let his imagination run riot and see what he comes up with. Thankfully, he's delivered the goods and more and done exactly what we were hoping for."

X Press 2 (Diesel
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